Subject: The NJ Death Penaly Question, Insights: Friends, Today, after two decades of wrongful incarceration, New Jerseyan Byron Halsey walked out of a Union County courthouse to his family and his freedom. This Innocence Project case will be on local TV news reports tonight and will also be prominently featured in New Jersey newspapers in the morning. A Star Ledger article on the case is below. It is important to note that though Byron Halsey ultimately received a life sentence, his was a death penalty case. What happened to Mr. Halsey was tragic and it would have been even more tragic had he received the death sentence that the State had sought for him. This is from the Innocence Project press release: With New Jersey in the middle of a serious discussion about whether the death penalty is worth its risks and costs, it is imperative that we learn the lessons of Byron Halsey’s case. The fact is that Byron Halsey is lucky he is alive to see the DNA test results in this case. The state fought hard to execute him for a crime that, two decades later, science proves he did not commit,” said Barry Scheck, Co-Director of the Innocence Project. Last week, a New Jersey Senate committee approved legislation that would abolish the death penalty in the state. Please take just a few minutes tonight or tomorrow to write a letter to the Editor about the Halsey case and to address the risk of executing an innocent person. The message is simple - as long as the death penalty continues to exist, the next mistakenly convicted person may not have the opportunity to walk out of prison. It is heartening that Mr. Halsey is finally free and reunited with his family. But, we are mindful that the family of the victims still suffer from their heartbreaking loss of two beautiful children. We keep both families in our thoughts this evening. (Here is the aricle Larry)

Man released from prison after DNA wins him new trial in killings of two children, Posted by _The Star-Ledger; More than 19 years after he was convicted for the rape and murder of two children, Byron Halsey walked out of the Union County Jail this afternoon after a DNA test prompted a judge to overturn his verdict. Halsey, who was convicted in 1988, was released on $55,000 bail pending a decision by prosecutors whether to retry him or drop the charges. In a brief press conference with lawyers for the Innocence Project who worked for his release, Halsey was somber and appeared uncomfortable as he faced a cheering crowd, dozens of television cameras and reporters. He said the years in prison were hard on him. "What was done to me was criminal at best," he said. Asked how he got through his ordeal, he replied, "I wasn't going to let nobody take my life from me." Wearing a white shirt, dark jeans and work boots, the 46-year-old emerged through a green side door of the Union County jail at 2:35 p.m.. He hugged his mother and brother in the afternoon sunshine, hours after Superior Court Judge Stuart L. Peim had granted him new trail. "More nice people around me now than have been around me for a long time," Halsey said softly as he embraced his relatives. After going back into the courthouse to finish processing for his release -- and changing into fresh clothes -- he took part in a news conference on the courthouse steps. "My grandmother told me if you're innocent, then fight them and the truth will come out," he remarked. Thanking his lawyers, Halsey would not say what his immediate plans were. "I just want to be thankful and pray. I want to go to church and get my Jesus on," he said. "It's a wonderful day," his mother, Eloise Halsey, told reporters. "I am a happy lady today. I did not give up on him. I knew he was innocent." Innocence Project co-director Barry Scheck noted that Halsey had faced a possible death penalty before being sentenced to two life terms plus 20 years. "Nobody should forget that but for the grace of God Byron might not have been here," Scheck said at the afternoon news conference. Judge Peim agreed to throw out the convictions against Halsey after he concluded that new evidence "would probably change the verdict." Halsey was convicted of sexually abusing, mutilating and murdering the children of a girlfriend he lived with at a Plainfield rooming house. The bodies of Tyrone, 8, and Tina Urquhart, 7, were found in the home's basement in November 1985. According to accounts of the trial, Tyrone had been smothered with a pillow and stabbed with scissors; Tina had been choked, sexually assaulted, and her skull fractured with a brick. The killer also drove four nails into Tyron's skull. The judge's decision to overturn the case was based on a DNA test that indicated a neighbor may have been responsible for the sexual assault and murder of the children. The neighbor, Clifton Hall of Plainfield, is now in prison for raping two young women and attempting to rape a third on the streets of Plainfield in the early 1990s. During a brief court session this morning, Halsey did not speak but appeared emotional as the judge vacated his conviction. His mother and brother were in court to support him. The judge set a hearing for July 9 for prosecutors to say whether they will pursue a new trial or drop the charges of murder, aggravated sexual assault and child abuse. A spokeswoman for the Union County Prosecutor's Office said it would not comment before then on how it would proceed. The mother of the victims, Margaret Urquhart, said in a statement issued through the Innocence Project: "I knew Byron loved Tyrone and Tina. It didn't make sense to me that he could have done this. But I didn't know what to do about them. I'm thankful that the DNA testing has identified who really did this to my children and that Byron is being released today. I want justice done in this case." Halsey said his views toward Urquhart never change. "I know in her heart she knows I'm innocent," he said. He declined to answer any questions about the neighbor. Following the press conference, Halsey left the courthouse, wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, and walked down Broad Street with his lawyers and his mother, before getting into an SUV. Larry Peterson, the last person to be exonerated in New Jersey with help from the Innocence Project, was there to watch. "Another member of our family to bring light on injustice in America," he remarked. Contributed by Jonathan Casiano and Wayne Woolley

RESPONSE: New Jersey hopefully with Democrats in control will become the first State to ban the death penalty. While Republicans talk about their concern for life in reality they push for a faster Court process to execute those convicted of capital crimes. Their concern is only about the un-born. Mullica residents saw that contempt for the lives of the wrongly convicted as THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US refused at the last Town meeting to take a stand after being asked to do so by the GadFly.